Residents Displaced By Oracle Corp. Move Seek Restitution

EAST AUSTIN, TX -- Displaced tenants of the Lakeview Apartments gathered Wednesday morning to protest across from their former home, now the future campus for an Oracle Corp. campus that has promted the residents’  ouster.

They sought to call attention to their plight, forced out of the affordable apartments they once called home to accommodate an expansion-minded, multibillion-dollar corporate behemoth with designs on the land upon which they once lived.

Displaced residents—some 100 low-income families once calling the place home—view that as just the latest, and one of the most extreme, examples of the gentrification wave that’s swept over Austin.

The world’s second-largest software firm with some $40 billion in revenue this week disclosed plans to build a 560,000-square-foot corporate campus on 27 acres of land fronting Lady Bird Lake east of the central business district—the place displaced residents called home before being evicted to make room for Oracle Corp.’s imminent expansion.

The company’s land acquisition included purchase of an adjacent apartment complex that Oracle officials said would be retrofitted as housing for a largely millennial workforce seeing a “life-work balance.”

Up until the company’s announcement, tenants were baffled over the urgency with which apartment managers wanted them out—even threatening to cut off their water and electricity if they didn’t move out immediately—in the weeks preceding the expansion news.

Some tenants had leases that didn’t expire until Dec. 31, yet they too were unceremoniously thrown out, residents complain. With Oracle’s big announcement, they now know precisely what led to their sudden ouster.

“I had an active lease until Dec. 31,” former tenant Robin Wilkins said. “I was forced out; by the end of September they said they were going to shut the electricity off and tear down the building.”

Wilkins was forced to scramble to find alternate living quarters, and quickly learned first-hand how much rental rates had gone up in the five years she had been living at the Lakeview Apartments.

“I was paying $720 a month over there, and now I’m paying $1,153 a month,” she said.

She’s had to cut corners to make ends meet, including securing hand-me-downs to clothe her children given her lack of money to buy new clothes at the store.

“It’s been a big strain on me financially,” she said. “I should be compensated for all I’ve been through.”

Texas Rural Legal Aid is helping residents with their legal claims. But rather than putting the blame on Oracle Corp. for former residents’ plight, they point to Cypress Real Estate Advisors—former owners of the Lakeview Apartments—who they say did nothing to help displaced tenants as they negotiated a land sale to Oracle Corp. behind the scenes.

“Oracle’s move to East Austin at the city’s encouragement is a slap in the face to the residents who once resided there,” said TRLA’s Stephanie Trinh. “Oracle, the City of Austin, and the developers may be pleased with this move, but it is emblematic of the largest problem affecting the city. Each has done what it can to ignore the residents who once resided there.”

She called on Oracle Corp. officials to help mitigate former residents’ woes.

“Oracle has a history of contributing to its local communities,” she said. “It is not responsible for past mistreatment of residents, but it can work with the community to make sure the displaced residents of Lakeview Apartments have a decent, affordable place to live.”

Ann Teich, an Austin independent School District trustee, wasn’t feeling so charitable. All told, she said, 225 children once living at Lakeview Apartments were affected by the stepped-up evictions, forcing parents to scramble in enrolling them elsewhere.

“I’m angry,” Teich said. “I’m angry because many students’ lives have been disrupted. It’s very disruptive to their learning.”

Affected students were enrolled at Metz Elementary, Martin Middle School, and Eastside Memorial High.
Having gotten nowhere with Cypress Real Estate Advisors—who residents say turned a deaf ear to their complaints—they now appeal to Oracle Corp. to help mitigate their inconvenience.

“Where’s the compassion? Wilkes asked. “They need to make it right.”

Oracle Corp. and Cypress Real Estate Advisors officials did not respond to requests for comment.